Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: just my OC's & the plot.

WARNING: Graphic death scene and gore: Squeamish? Not to worry, feel free to skip. (But fair warning; it's not gonna get any better in later chapters)

LEMONS & CHERRIES

Chapter 9: Search & Rescue

The Interstate Highway, 30 miles east of Tranquility, 8:45pm:

"Holy crap! I still can't believe we actually did it!" Lizzy grinned as she tightened her grip on Firefly's steering wheel, "I mean-, no one even saw us cross over the firing range!"

"I know! I knew that short-cut through those gullies would get us to the perimeter unnoticed!" Firefly concurred in equal excitement: "And now we're home free and outta here forever!" she whooped. "AMEN!" Lizzy fist-pumped; after settling back down from their little moment of celebration, the two females sighed with relief, and turned their attention to what lay ahead: "So? Where do we go first?" Firefly asked.

"Las Vegas of course! It's seven hours into the next state, but it's worth the trek!" Lizzy smiled, "You'll love it there! And if we play our cards right (literally) we can win us some serious moolah!"

"Moolah?"

"Yeah you know? Money? We'll need something to buy food water and gas with once our supplies run dry" Lizzy reasoned

"Oh yeah" Firefly suddenly realized, "So we're gonna try and con the casino's outta their cash? Do you even know how to do that?"

"Please," Lizzy replied coolly with a smug grin, "I know how to cheat at poker, black-jack and roulette, and I know how to rig a slot machine: there's a sucker born every second and ya gotta take him for all he's worth; and the suckers don't come any dumber than in Las Vegas. With my smarts and your high-end alien tech, we'll be millionaires by this time tomorrow!"

"Awesome!" Firefly perked up as she weaved her way through the flow of traffic. While checking her speed to make sure they wouldn't get pulled over for speeding, Lizzy suddenly noticed a red light flashing under Firefly's speedometer; "Hey, what's that flashing light for?"

"That? It's my comm alert, my aft-headed sisters are trying to comm me: but don't worry, I disengaged my communications functions and Autobot tracker signal. No one knows where we are or where we're going" the femme confidently replied.

"Sweetness" Lizzy smiled as she hit the accelerator, and together they took off for the state border.

Meanwhile, back at NEST base:

"Ugh! She's not picking up! She's deliberately disengaged her comm and her Autobot tracker signal!" Bluebird huffed in annoyance as she tried comming her little sister for the umpteenth time: with Prime, Majestrix and the rest of the Autobots looking on in a mix of concern and annoyance while the Ainsley sisters/cousins stood on the main platform, looking on with worry and frustration.

"I just finished the secondary bio-signature sweep of the whole base: Lizzy's nowhere on any of the levels" Red Alert added,

"And she's still not picking up her cell: she must've turned it off" Jeanie huffed as she snapped her flip-phone shut

"What reason could there be for the two of them to run off like this?" Majestrix mused aloud

"Well it wouldn't be the first time Firefly's gotten frustrated with us" Veebee shrugged: "She's tried running away before but she never gets very far"

"But Lizzy's never run away from home before" Jeanie pointed out, "Why would they go together?"

"Rebellious teenage youth? I don't know," Bishop shrugged as he commed Max's search party: "Report, have you found her yet?"

: Nope, and she sure as pit ain't anywhere near the base anymore: Rumble replied

Bishop frowned with confusion, "Elaborate" he replied

: I tracked her scent; it would seem she got out via a hole in the perimeter fence, after successfully traversing the mine field. She then walked all the way to the interstate just beyond the outer-most ridge: from there she must have hitched a ride back to Tranquility: Ravage explained. : As for the brats? It would seem they managed to jump the fence just past the firing-range's eastern most end; the area where those rocks are stacked up? They must have taken a running jump, before landing on the other side and following one of the gullies along to the interstate:

"So Max is heading home while Lizzy and Firefly are heading for either home or god knows where," Darren realized, "...Great" he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair, "This is all we need"

"We can't just let them go! Mom and dad will go postal if they find out!" Allie panicked

"I'm not worried about Max; she can take care of herself, but if Barricade is still looking for us she won't stand a chance against him!" Chelsea panicked

"Well what're we gonna do?" said Rosy

"We will look for them" Prime stated

"What? But what about Barricade?" Moonracer pointed out

"Searching for the children takes greater priority than looking for our quarry: and if they are still Barricade's targets, we have to get to them before he and the other Decepticons do" Optimus stated, before opening a comm line to Crystalwing : Crystalwing, are you receiving me? Over:

: Loud and clear Prime : the femme replied as she gazed down at the planet earth from her orbit.

: There has been a change of plans; Max, Firefly and Lizzy have absconded from the base, we need you to try and locate them, and track their movements: Prime ordered

: Understood; but what about Barricade and the cons? :

: The mission objective still stands, but it is essential we locate the younglings first, before they do:

: Understood, give me some time to scan their previous coordinates, I'll get back to you when I find them, or Barricade: Crystalwing replied

: Copy that, Prime out:

"So now we go look for them?" Epps threw in, "Even with Crystalwing keeping tabs from up in space it'll be like lookin' for three needles in a haystack; Tranquility ain't New York but it's still a big city"

"Then we're going too" Darren stated

"What?" Majestrix blinked in surprise

"Look, we know Tranquility inside and out, and we know where Max and Lizzy's favorite hang-outs are (among other places). You'll have a better chance of finding them if you let come too" Darren replied.

"And besides, if Barricade is still after us like you said, you'll have a much better chance of catching him while we're searching for them" Roxy threw in, the cousins all glared at her: "What? It just makes logical sense is all" she shrugged

Dismissing her remark and focusing on the subject at hand: Prime nodded in agreement, "If you know where to find them, then we will have a better chance of locating them"

"What about the mission?" Bishop asked

"The mission objective has not changed, with the exception that my team will diverge from the main route to locate the younglings" Prime stated as he turned to address the Autobots: "Teams two through to six will continue the sweep and report their findings. My team will head up the search with the Ainsley children accompanying us"

"Wait!-" Bluebird interrupted, "Can we come too? Firefly's our sister, and if she runs into Barricade she'll be unprepared for him, and if she has got Lizzy with her the situation could escalate quickly". "We can take the younglings: you guys are gonna need your driver's sides free if you need to transform in a hurry" Tangostar threw in

Prime pondered Bluebird's request for a moment, before replying: "Very well, but you stay close at all times; do not deviate from us unless I say so, understood?"

"Understood" the femmes replied hastily

"Autobot's, you have your orders. Transform and roll out!" Prime ordered: as the other Autobots transformed into their altmode's and allowed their human passengers to climb into them, he turned to Majestrix, "Remain on stand-by, and be ready to mobilize the airborne units if we require additional reinforcements"

"Understood" she nodded, "But you don't seriously think you'll need air support, do you?"

Prime hesitated, "...I do not know: but my 'gut' is telling me something about all this is 'off' somehow"

"Well, be that as it may: don't start the party without me" Majestrix smirked

"Not unless you crash it first" Prime smiled before he transformed into his Peterbuilt form and attached his battle-trailer to his rear. Together the Autobots sped out of the base with several armored NEST trucks bringing up the rear: Bluebird, Tangostar and Veebee fell in behind Prime and Trailbreaker, as they made their way to the interstate.

Tranquility, sometime later on the north side of little China town:

"You take care now darlin'!" the track driver waved goodbye

"See ya round 'Chuck'" Max replied as she climbed down out of the passenger side of Chuck's truck, and hopped onto the sidewalk. As the truck sped off, Max looked around with a sigh of relief: it was good to be back in the city again, but she couldn't relax just yet; there things she had to see to first. Making her way down the back alleys and side streets, she soon arrived in the red light district: but surprisingly, hardly anyone was around. A handful of Johns were cruising the streets looking for a good time, as the pimps were keeping a watchful eye on their girls: the dealers and junkies were doing business as usual, and even the local gang was out looking to have some fun on the town.

But the atmosphere didn't feel right: there was a tense feeling in the air, the kind that came from knowing something bad was about to happen; she couldn't put her finger on it, but Max could see it in the eyes of the prostitutes, the junkies and the others who frequented this part of town. Dismissing it and putting it out of her mind: Max made her was to MR Wu's Pawn shop at the end of the street; entering through the wooden beaded door curtain into a shop full of clutter and junk, she soon spotted the man she was looking for,

"Hey Lee!" she grabbed the young man's attention; spotting her over a pile of old magazines, the young man nearly jumped out of his skin when he recognized her. "Max?!" he gasped in alarm: looking around to make sure no one was in the back room or behind the counter, he jumped up out of his chair and rushed to her, "What the hell are you doing here?! My dad'll flip if he catches you here!" he hissed, trying to keep his voice down.

"You're dad's hardly ever here" Max pointed out in a deadpan tone

"But my Grandpa is, and his hearing ain't gone yet!" he calmed down a little, "...Where've you been anyway? You've been gone nearly a week!"

"Sorry, I got waylaid by other business" she lied with her poker face

"Well what the hell was so damn important you couldn't call! Eddy's been looking for you everywhere, and going postal over those goods you didn't deliver"

"He found out?" Max panicked slightly

"No (not yet at least), I didn't say anything: but he's starting to get suspicious" he replied.

"It doesn't matter: I'm leaving tonight"

"You're leaving?" he blinked in surprise, "To go where?"

"I don't know, anywhere but here that's for damn sure" Max replied, "I just came by to give you this" she handed him her SIM card, "Make sure you get rid of it, I don't want anyone coming after me"

"But-, what about Chelsea? Where's she at?"

Max paused somberly, "...She's not coming"

Sensing that she didn't want to talk about it, Lee changed the subject and asked: "So? What're you gonna do now? Before you leave I mean"

"I gotta check in with Hammer and Marcus, they're holding some stuff for me, after that, I'm heading to the rail depot and hopping on the first East-bound train outta here" she replied

"Well? Good luck with that, just be sure you keep an eye out for Eddy: he's totally pissed with you for taking off the way you did"

"It was totally outta my hands. Where's he at now?"

"Still at the warehouse I guess? I tried calling him earlier this morning but he didn't pick up; it's real weird, I tried calling Tyrone, Biggy, Becks, pretty much everyone, but no one answered. Either they all got their phones switched off (which I very highly doubt) or something's going on he and rest of them ain't told me about"

Max frowned in confusion, but dismissed it: "Whatever. I've got no time left for those shit-heads; I'm bailing out while I still got the opportunity...Been nice knowing you Lee" she turned to leave the shop.

"Wait!-" he stopped her, "If Chelsea drops by looking for you: what do I tell her?"

Max hesitated a moment, before a look of bitterness cast over her expression: "...Tell her to go to hell..."

At around the same time elsewhere in the city:

: Yo Darren! You still there?: Rosy called through on Tangostar's comm

"It's an open comm Rosy, you don't have to keep pressing the button on the dash" Darren sighed with exasperation:

: Oh right, well anyway, we just finished trailing around the mall and we ain't seen nothing, how're you doing your end? :

"Nothing; we've covered the arcade, the prank and joke shop and the DVD rental store. We got zip"

: Okay, we're coming back your way: Tangostar replied as she reappeared in Trailbreaker's rear view mirror, rejoining the Autobot search party.

"What about you Chelsea, any luck?" Darren asked

: We just finished checking out lil' Italy and no one's seen Max there: we're coming back over your way: Chelsea replied

"Okay..." Darren sighed as he leaned back in Trailbreaker's driver's seat and passed a deep sigh; "Don't worry, we will find them" Trailbreaker assured him via his radio speakers.

"It's not just that," Darren sighed, "I can understand Max taking off, but Lizzy? What's her excuse? And what if they don't want to come back? It's not like anything will have changed"

"I know" his guardian replied somberly, "But at the very least we have to make sure their okay"

"I know" Darren said: he was about to say something else when his cell phone rang, it was his father; pressing the speaker button and placing it in its holder, he straightened up as he answered: "Hi dad, what's up?"

: -Oh thank God! Where the hell are you?! I've been trying to reach you for hours!: his father demanded in a frantic voice, the urgency of his tone made Darren snap out of his funk and pay attention: "Dad? What's wrong?"

: It's Violet, she's been kidnapped- : Darren pulled over hard to the side of the road and slammed on Trailbreaker's breaks, the other Autobots all served to avoid rear-ending the Black Lincoln MKS and pulled over too. On the other end of the open comms the panicked voices of his cousins could be heard frantically demanding to know what just happened. "SHUT UP!-" Darren shouted, and the frequency fell silent: "What happened?!" Darren demanded

: Your uncle Will and Violet were out getting groceries when someone attacked them and knocked him out: he's got a concussion but he's okay, witnesses outside the convenience store said they saw a black Ford Escort speeding off with a girl in the front seat. The police are already out looking for it and an Amber Alert's been issued, but when I rang the base to try and get a hold of you, they said you were out looking for Max and Lizzy: what the hell's going on? :

"I-" Darren hesitated, "It's kinda complicated, Max managed to get off the base and Lizzy's run off with one of the bots: we're searching for them right now"

: Well get looking for that Ford Escort too! God only knows where the perv is now! Will and Lorie are going outta their minds with worry; I'll be in touch-: Peter said before abruptly ending the call

Darren sat there, dazed for a moment with his head spinning, trying to work out what the hell to do.

: Darren?! What the hell just happened?! : Jeanie demanded worryingly

: Report! Are you both okay? : Prime ordered

Snapping back to the here and now, Darren replied: "...I-, I just got a call from my dad; something happened..."

Meanwhile, across town:

"What the hell just happened? The line's gone dead" Roxy huffed as she tried to activate Veebee's comm switch.

"Either they must have entered a black spot, or something's blocking the signal from getting through: which is kinda weird cuz my scanners aren't detecting any interference" Veebee mused aloud through her radio speakers.

"Must be the latter, you can't get a good cell reception in this end of town anyway" Roxy shrugged, "Anyway, we've checked out Lizzy's favourite pizza take-out, and ice cream store and there's no sign of the lil' twip; guess we better head back and see what all the fuss was about before we lost them"

"Yeah I guess?" Veebee mentally shrugged, "I do have a question though: what'll you do if we find her first?"

"Lizzy? Give her a chewing out first before kicking her butt home, let mom and dad blow a fuse at her. But if it's Max? Hey, no love loss here, if she's gone she's gone" Roxy shrugged

"Okay, just don't go making an aft of yourself okay?" Veebee pointed out as she pulled out of a box junction and into the lane heading for Prime's position.

"Hey, you let me worry about that, just be sure to cover me if she tries to gouge my eyes out or somethin'" Roxy replied nonchalantly.

After several minutes driving, the pink VW beetle came to a halt at a four way junction with traffic lights; as they waited for the lights to change: Roxy casually glanced over at the car on her left, and her thoughts suddenly came to a screeching halt...

There, slumped over in the front passenger seat of a black Ford Escort was Violet: half conscious, she turned her head and saw Roxy staring back at her in shock; "Help me" she mouthed weakly, before passing out. Gazing up at the driver, Roxy gasped in alarm as he made eye-contact with her: in that one tense moment of realization, both of them realized what the other had seen; the driver of the Ford Escort slammed on the accelerator and took off across the junction, narrowly missing a pizza delivery van and a fire truck. "SHIT!-" Roxy cursed, and without even thinking she slammed on Veebee's accelerator and took off after the Ford Escort.

"WHAT?! What're you doing?!" Veebee panicked as she tried to regain control of her driving systems.

"HE'S GOT HER!" Roxy replied frantically, trying to keep pace with the Ford Escort as it sped through the traffic.

"What?! Who's got who?!"

"Didn't you see?! That creep driving the car in front's got Violet in the front seat!"

"But I-, What?!"

"-Listen! Take the wheel and whatever you do don't lose him! I gotta make a call!-" Roxy stated as she got out her cell phone from her pocket and dialed in Darren's cell number, she didn't even give him time to respond as she blurted out: "Darren! Wherever you guys are you better move it! I've just seen Violet sitting in some creep's car, passed out! We're chasing him right now so whatever you got in mind to stop him, do it!-"

Meanwhile, just south of little Italy:

The warehouse was as beaten up, dilapidated and run down as ever, only this time it seemed a lot more drab than usual: but Max honestly didn't care, it's who occupied it that was now the subject of her concern. As she strolled up to the front entrance, the main delivery doors were open as usual, but where were Marcus and Daniel? They were usually guarding the doors at this time of the early evening...

As she approached closer, something in her gut told her this wasn't right; there was usually music blasting from out of the office windows, along with the smell of alcohol and weed drifting up on the breeze. But it was totally silent, and the air was as still as water in a glass...

Something was wrong

Cautiously she approached the doors, peered in, and sure enough no one was there: but as she looked around, she instantly spotted the dark blood-spatter on the walls, and the blood trickling down the stairs, followed by the heavy metallic smell of blood and the putrid smell of rotting meat. With her stomach tightening up into a knot, Max warily climbed up the stairs to the office, and as she pushed the door open, her throat clamped shut in attempt to stop herself from throwing up.

Strewn about the office in a bloody mess, were the bodies of her former gang: Eddy and the other guys had been shot through the head execution style, and from the way they were slumped over, it looked like they had been made to get down on their hands and knees first; but the girls? They were a different story. Six headless naked bodies were tied to the chairs and tables, their skin completely removed, exposing the muscle and ligaments, while their abdomens and groins were a just a complete mess of butchered flesh and bone with the abdominal organs slopped out in a gross slimy mess. But what made it worse were the countless flies swarming about, filling the room with a loud droning buzz while their maggots squirmed and wriggled about the corpses, devouring every inch of flesh in their wake: along with the rats that were also gorging themselves on the bloody feast.

Panicked, horrified, and disgusted beyond measure, Max staggered back out into the corridor where she allowed herself to vomit. She pitched forward as her stomach expelled the remains of her previous meal: and with it the brief but intense horror that was racking her whole body with shock. After a minute or two trying to regain herself, a sound outside made her snap back to reality.

Cautiously peering back into the office (being careful not to step inside again), she suddenly saw a large circular red light glowing through the window; it was the strangest thing she'd ever seen, what on earth was it?

But then suddenly, it blinked

It wasn't a light, it an eye: a large robotic eye, and before she could even figure out what or who it was, the whole office crashed and caved in as a giant black clawed hand tried to grab her. Max jerked back instinctively, narrowly avoiding its grip, but as she ran to the stairs a claw sliced her hoodie and snagged her shoulder; but she didn't dare look back as she bolted down the stairway and out of the warehouse. Whatever it was came crashing through the building as it chased after her: ducking into a narrow alleyway, Max quickly looked back and recognized the thing as Barricade; with an angry snarl the Decepticon tried to grab her, but the alley was too small for him to squeeze through, and as Max ran along well out of his reach, he backed up, transformed and took off.

Stopping to catch her breath, Max desperately racked her brain, pushing aside the images of the massacre and trying to think of a way out of this: when suddenly, the sound a train rolling by caught her attention...

"The depot" she realized, and in that moment she had an idea. The train depot wasn't far away, and after navigating her way through the labyrinth of back-alleys she soon came to the depot; being careful to watch for Barricade: who had been tracking her parallel to alleyway's she's ran down. After climbing over the fence, Max weaved her way in and out of the stationary train carriages and carts, until she spotted one of the entrances to the subway. Hearing the characteristic transformation sequence not far behind, it was safe to surmise that Barricade was coming after her on two legs: which meant he could pursue her much more nimbly.

As she approached the tunnel, she heard exactly what she wanted to hear, the sound of a train fast approaching: stopping at the mouth of the tunnel and peering in, she could feel the air rushing up as the train was rounding the last corner of the track. Looking back over her shoulder, she gasped as she spotted Barricade, and he spotted her. Looking back at the train, she realized she'd have to time it right for her idea to work, and as the knot in her stomach tightened harder with every passing second, she started bouncing back on forth of each foot as her legs readied themselves to move. Then, as the black and white Decepticon came within range and the train was within seconds of the tunnel entrance: Max took off as fast as her legs could carry her, and with one mighty bound she jumped across the tracks, narrowly missing the train as it sped past her, but Barricade couldn't stop quick enough, and went under the train as it crashed into him with a ear-splitting CRASH! The train and three of its carriages derailed and skidded across the graveled ground, but luckily didn't flip over: all at once metal ground on metal with a horrible SCREEEEEAACH! As Barricade was carried under the train and across the tracks for some distance, until he and the carriages crashed into a row of empty diesel containers.

Max didn't stop to look back, and carried on running until she spotted a long line of empty train carts: she ran up to one cart, climbed inside, heaved the sliding door shut, and scurried into the farthest end of the cart, waiting and listening; hoping and praying he hadn't survived.

Elsewhere, not too far away:

"This is insane! Where'd you say he's heading again?!" Jeanie demanded

: Down Pankhurst street! Through the financial district towards the eastern interstate!: Roxy yelled back over the cell phone's speaker,: I've still got him but you gotta hurry!:

"We are hurrying! But it's gonna take time for us to get over that way!" Chelsea retorted as she switched the cell phone off.

"I know this is urgent but should we split up like this?" Bluebird interjected, "Prime and the others are right behind us but there's no one on point to cover us from the front"

: Do not worry Bluebird: Prime assured her over the open comm,: From this position I can see quite-

But Prime didn't finish as a black blur crashed into his side and all but toppled him off the highway; suddenly the whole Autobot team was thrown into chaos as eight big black Decepticons leapt out from a couple of side streets and blindsided them. All but Trailbreaker and the VW sisters transformed and wasted no time in going on the offensive, and within barely a second the highway was a giant smack-down free for all; while the humans looked on in a mix of shock and horror.

"PRIME!" Trailbreaker cried out in a panic as he watched the Peterbuilt take a hard left hook to the face plates.

: GO! Get as far away as you can! Protect the children at all costs! : Prime ordered

: But what about you?! : Tangostar panicked

: We'll be fine! NOW GO! THAT IS AN ORDER! : Optimus bellowed as he tackled the con that punched him.

Trailbreaker was quick to catch up to the femmes as they sped off: but from another street, three more black trucks swerved out and chased after them.

: Guys, we got three more cons on our tailpipes! : Trailbreaker yelled out, but no one could reply.

"Shit! We're on our own!" Darren cursed

: What'd we do?! : Rosy panicked

Looking back at the trucks, Darren suddenly had an idea: "We'll keep them distracted, and lead them away while you go on and join up with Roxy and Veebee!"

: WHAT?! But Darren you can't-:

"WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO ARGUE!" Darren shut her up, "-Just do as I say, and we'll join up as soon as we can! NOW MOVE IT!" he stated as he took Trailbreaker's wheel; simultaneously, a set of small guns flipped out from under the license plate on the back of the Lincoln MKS and opened fire at the nearest truck. As the vehicle swerved, it transformed into another Decepticon, and took off after Trailbreaker on all fours like a wolf.

Jeanie, Ally, Chelsea and Rosy watched helplessly as Trailbreaker took off down another street: the wolf-con followed them, but the remaining two trucks stayed with the femmes.

"SHIT! Their still following us! What do we do now?!" Chelsea cursed.

Scanning the immediate area, Bluebird spotted something that gave her an idea; "I have an idea, follow me!" she said as she turned off the highway and sped into the train depot with Tangostar following right on her bumper. An unusually large number of fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles were congregated around a particular section of the depot: and they soon saw why...

"Whoa! One the trains derailed!" Rosy gasped

"What're we doing here?" Jeanie asked

"With all these humans around the cons won't risk breaking cover: they're still tailing us but their keeping their distance: look-" Bluebird directed her rear-view mirror, showing the two trucks as they entered the depot: but turned off in another direction, keeping parallel with the femmes from the other side of the derailment.

"Okay, but how do we lose them?" Chelsea asked

"We'll take care of that, but first, we gotta find you somewhere to hide..." Bluebird replied as she turned and drove along a long row of coal carts; after driving down several more rows of stationary carts, carriages and engines, she soon spotted an empty row of carts at the farthest end of the depot. Driving along to the rear end of the carts, she and Tangostar both stopped and opened their doors, allowing the humans to get out, before transforming and placing them into one of the carts. "Okay, you stay here, and whatever you do, don't get out until we come back for you"

"You promise you'll come back?" Rosy panicked,

"We promise, now hide..." Bluebird replied as she slid the sliding door shut, "Okay, now let's take care of the Decepti-creeps!" she said as she fired up her wrist-mounted guns and took off back the way they came with Tangostar covering her back.

Inside the cart, the girls huddled together in fear: "You don't think they'll find us do you?" Rosy anxiously asked

"I don't know..." Jeanie replied in equal nerviness. Suddenly, the cart shunted forward, nearly throwing them backwards, and beneath their feet the girls could sense the vibrations of the wheels moving along the tracks. "We're moving?" Chelsea frowned in alarm; opening the other door on the opposite side, the girls were dismayed to see, that indeed the cart was moving, and steadily picking up speed.

"Shit! There's a train coupled on the other end!" Jeanie cursed

"We gotta jump off!" Rosy stated

"And risk breaking an arm or a leg? If those cons are nearby we won't be able to move as quickly!" Chelsea pointed out

"So what, we just stay here?!" Allie panicked, "Where's this train even going anyway?"

"Don't know; but I guess we'll find out sooner or later..." Chelsea replied as she leaned out the door, and watched as the depot rolled on by and was soon left behind.

A little while later, elsewhere:

"Where the hell are they?! And where the hell are the god-damn cops?!" Roxy vented as she stayed with the Ford Escort, "This is getting stupid! Sooner or later we're gonna loose him!"

"Ohohohoh! I got an idea!-" Veebee perked up; lining up as close to their quarry as she could, she held her speed steadily as a small nozzle folded out of her side, and shot a small glowing blue ball of-, what looked like bubblegum, right at the bumper on the left side of the license plate. "Yes!" Veebee cheered as she bounced on her tires, but had to swerve sharply to avoid a car that nearly blindsided her; pulling over onto the side of the highway, she slowed down as she straightened up and rejoined the flow of traffic (though not without a few honks from several angry drivers).

"What the hell are you doing?! We're gonna loose him!" Roxy exclaimed angrily

"Chill will ya!-" Veebee reassured her, "I just shot some of my energon at his rear bumper: it won't matter if we lose him, all we gotta do is follow the residue trail and it'll lead us to wherever he's going"

"...Okay? ..." Roxy frowned cautiously as she flipped her phone open and called up her cousin: "Darren? Where the hell are you guys?!" she demanded angrily

: Sorry Roxy we've been having a little con trouble-: Darren replied as he turned onto the highway, sporting a fresh set of cuts and bruises: along with Trailbreaker who was covered in dents, dings and scratched paint. : We just finished taking care of him, where're you at now? : He replied.

"Still heading east, he's just turned off the highway," Roxy said as she caught a final glimpse of the kidnapper before he disappeared amongst the traffic, "Looks like he's heading outta the city"

: Stay on his ass, I'll be with you as soon as I can; the others are having con trouble too so they might be a while:

"Whatever, just get over here!" Roxy snapped the phone shut

"You know? You're pretty worked up for someone who doesn't care much for others" Veebee pointed out

Roxy hesitated, "...Being a bitch and behaving like a bitch are two different things. Besides, I'm not that heartless" she stated reluctantly

"But you said-"

"I know what I said!-" Roxy snapped, trying to keep her nerve in check as she ran her fingers through her hair, "...I was wrong okay? You happy now?"

"Yes" Veebee smirked

"I swear if you tell anyone I'm going soft, I'm gonna take the biggest potato I can find and shove it all the way up you're-"

"-Hey! It's okay, we're cool: I won't tell anyone" Veebee assured her, "And anyway, what's a potato?"

Roxy blinked in surprise.

Meanwhile, near the California/Nevada state boarder:

"Finally! We're almost outta Cali!" Lizzy perked up

"Finally! I thought this state was gonna go on forever" Firefly sighed with relief

"Yeah It's pretty big" Lizzy nodded, "Hey how' bout some music? We still got a long drive to Las Vegas: you look like a Nickleback kinda bot"

"Sure thing" Firefly obliged, and switched on her radio.

:-We interrupt this programme for an emergency broadcast. An Amber Alert has been issued for Violet Madeline Ainsley-

Lizzy gasped in shock as she served over to the side of the highway, and slammed on Firefly's breaks, screeching to halt mere inches from the concrete barrier.

-Who was abducted by a white male in his mid to late forties, of medium to average build with light auburn hair, a short moustache, glasses, and driving a black Ford Escort XR3; witnesses have sighted the suspect driving eastbound out of the city, heading towards-

As she sat there listening to the radio, Lizzy stared off into space, completely shocked and amazed; whipping out her cell phone and switching it on, she was further surprised to see Jeanie had left over thirty messages, all telling her to call her right now.

"What's wrong?! Why'd we stop?!" Firefly demanded in dismay.

Looking up ahead, Lizzy spotted a sign that read: Leaving so soon? Do come back again! And behind her in the rear-view mirror, there was another sign that read: Welcome to California! We hope you have fun!

"...Violet..." Lizzy blurted out as she sat there, trying to work out what to do...

Well, that was pretty fast-paced, and a little gory at that warehouse, which reminds me...

Pop-quiz time: decapitation, excoriation and hacking the abdomen into mince meat, sound familiar? Well stay tuned, cuz it's about to get a lot more grizzly from here on out. Just warning you is all.

Do let me know what you think, and stay tuned! ;)